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Friday, January 25, 2019

Farewell to the River: Meager Country Post Mortem

The first thing my players read about the Meager Country campaign was this:

"Her eminent majesty, the Sultan of the Bronze City has little interest in this cold and poor land. The people it houses are many and barbarous, valuable only so long as they respect the empire and as suppliers of fine furs, strong slaves, and amber. However, Her greatness has made certain investments up the river. To the people of Orusk she has given a small fortune of silver. This debt she needs reclaimed and given to the Koto Kete so that they may build a fortress to protect themselves from the vicious Kazan, whose budding domain will surely threaten the empire if none can stand against them. And to you, a ragtag group of scholars, civil servants, and mercenaries the Sultan has promised a single favor, if only you do her bidding. Sell your silk robes and put on your fur coat, it’s time to head up the river, to the Meager Country."


Just last week we finished up the campaign. We started playing last June and were able to meet almost every week. Everything went well, the party delivered the 5000 gp, taken from tombs and from lakebeds and from the spoils of war bands and from the coffers of cannibal priests, into the wide lap of Khan Sarnai. The Sultan had given them 5 Besharan months to complete their mission and return to the palace, which boiled down to 105 days once the time it would take to cross and recross the Sea of Pearls was accounted for. They managed to do it in 102, a fine performance if you ask me. We ended the campaign with a quick epilogue which went over what each of the characters did with the favor offered to them by the Sultan. One had a more democratic university constructed which his adopted daughter, formerly a slave in the Meager Country, attended when she was of age. One won back his family's misspent fortune. One requested a bow made by finest Wizard-Artificers and became a mercenary. The last found her way back to the Meager Country on a new expedition to discover the origin of Glass Women.

I'm really happy with the way the campaign turned out overall. I got to test out a bunch of new mechanics and character options. I got to explore the Meager Country for the first time, which lead to the creation of this blog. We got to end the campaign with a strong conclusion, instead of letting it sputter into extinction. And all along the way there were lots of great moments and encounters which I think my players will remember for a long time. But I've also learned a lot from this campaign and realized I need to improve in many different areas. So, gentle reader, let's dissect the Meager Country.

The New Rules and Character Options

I added a lot of rules to 5e with the goal of achieving a more OSR/DIY style of play. I used a wound system with a drop dice table and an encumbrance system cribbed from the GLOG. I also put more restrictions on spell casting with my religion system, which sees most of the classes required to perform rituals to maintain their supernatural powers. I also added extra restrictions to wizards (though nobody played one). I sent around a survey to my players to ask them how they felt these rules impacted the game and we seemed to be in agreement: all these rules didn't feel like they made a huge impact on the game. People felt like most wounds could be ignored (they only needed to rest to get rid of wounds once), and completing rituals wasn't a great hindrance. I think this was in part due to the style of the campaign, it became more about negotiating and role playing rather than combat. The party's material resources were never put under the kind of long term pressure which is required for people to really notice the effects of wounds piling up and the time needed to perform rituals drying up. It might have been a better idea just to use the gritty healing rules provided in 5e so that the resources the party had felt more valuable and had to be managed over a greater length of time.

We also had new people to play as and new backgrounds. For the new people, I also took a more DIY approach, no stat bonuses and no dark vision. Not all of them got tested, but I think Bronze Folk and the Tamani definitely need something more to make them feel more unique and the Clay People's whole ivory eating thing never seemed like it got enough use and should be replaced. I'm proud of the Glass Women though. My only complaint is that they might be too powerful and dwarf the other peoples in sheer coolness. Generally, I think all the people could be better focused around 1 or 2 major bonuses. 

As for the backgrounds, only one was used (the imperial bureaucrat) and I think I bungled the job pretty badly. I neglected to fill out the bond, flaw, ideal tables and now that I've played more 5e myself I understand their utility a lot more. 

Things I learned

-You don't need a lot to have fun. Some of the most engaging sessions we played were just based on rough sketches of wilderness environments the players were charged with exploring. 

-Even failure can be engaging. The party attempted to resurrect a dead fire goddess and failed. I thought it would be really demoralizing but many of the players looked back on the moment fondly. 

-Having a campaign centered on a single mission is efficient. It provides a reason for all the characters to be working together and sets reasonable expectations for what the game will be about and when it will end. 

-Burnout is real. It was incredibly hard to prep a session from almost scratch every week and I felt pressured to produce a lot of unique material for a unique setting. I think this pressure really hurt the campaign and led to many parts of the game feeling a little underdeveloped. 


Things I need to improve on

-I really need to do traveling across the steppe and having encounters there correct. It often felt like we were traveling across just expanses of nothing but grass. In general, travel felt a little too vague, like there wasn't much room for player choice. 

-I need to get better at incorporating NPCs into the game. The party picked up a lot characters who traveled with them but I feel like they didn't have much of an impact on the game. 

-I need to get better at running a political game. There was lots of interacting with different factions but I felt like I could do a lot more to make this an interesting focus of the game. 

Credit Where it's Due

I often wonder about how much material from blogs finds its way into real games. I'd certainly like to hear about it when somebody is so kind as to sue something I've made. So I'd like to take a moment to thank Joseph Manola for all the great stuff he posts on Against the Wicked City. I made great use of his rules for wrestling, improvised a fun encounter involving a Shurale, and ran a really great dungeon inspired by these two posts of his.

What's next for the Meager Country?

I think I'm done with the Meager Country and the Besharan Empire for now, though I'll certainly return to them soon. I'd like to play more, run different systems, get some more breadth in my DMing portfolio. I'm so excited to start new games and continue the long process of getting better at running the game.

When I do come back to the Meager Country it will be quite different, new wallpaper put up for new guests.  For one, I've got to move it beyond just being the bastard child of the Wicked City, Centerra, and Ibn Fadlan's encounter with the Rus.

 Beyond that, I'm not sure what direction I'll go in with the Meager Country. It might not be in 5e anymore, it might take the perspective of the natives of the Meager Country, it might take place in the future where the Besharan faith spread across the world before promptly self destructing. I'll still post about the Meager Country though, as I retcon and renovate, though it will probably be mostly lore and background stuff scattered with the few encounters and dungeons which are fit for being edited and put on here.

I'd just like to say thanks to everybody who has supported this blog or enjoyed what I do here. I look forward to entertaining you more and, hopefully, contributing useful content to your games. 

This post is dedicated to Sallam the Interpreter, who spoke 30 languages 

2 comments:

  1. The Meager Country will always live on in our hearts, whether you're visiting or not.

    You've done such a great job writing meaningful, evocative content. I look forward to seeing what you do next.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Meager Country is incredible. I wish I had looked at your blog earlier.

    ReplyDelete